On stage: Berklee grad in touring production of 'Motown: The Musical'

By R. Scott Reedy/For The Patriot Ledger

Wednesday

Jun 6, 2018 at 11:22 AMJun 7, 2018 at 3:27 PM

Performer Quiana Holmes plays three very different roles in the tour of “Motown: The Musical.”

That means she not only sings a variety of songs, but she also looks different almost every time she takes the stage in the Tony Award-nominated musical that opens a one-week return engagement at the Boston Opera House on June 12.

“I play Mary Wilson, and also Berry Gordy’s mother, and a Rick James dancer,” said Holmes by telephone recently from a Toronto tour stop. “I have 14 costume changes. Sometimes they’re more challenging than the choreography.”

The 2017 graduate of Boston’s Berklee College of Music is quick to acknowledge, however, that the multiple changes are definitely worth the effort.

“It’s always fun to put on these beautiful Emilio Sosa costumes. I’d love to be able to wear them in real life. If I could take them out of the theater and bring them home with me, I would.

“I’m amazed at how much I transform in them. It’s like time traveling. I look in the mirror and think, ‘Who am I? Who is this person?’” Holmes said.

The music for that time travel – including some of the biggest pop and R&B songs of the 20th century – came out of Motown and its Detroit headquarters, “Hitsville USA.” Songwriter and record producer Berry Gordy founded Tamla Records, later incorporated as the Motown Record Company, in 1959.

The record label launched the careers of not only the Supremes, originally featuring Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, but also Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, and many more.

Gordy’s book for “Motown: The Musical” is based on his 1994 autobiography, “To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, and the Memories of Motown.” Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, the musical premiered at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on April 14, 2013, and ran through January 18, 2015.

“Berry Gordy has come out to see this production on tour many times. It’s always amazing to be around him. He tells wonderful stories, and he really encourages us, too, which is great,” says Holmes.

Holmes, 23, may only recently have met the music mogul, but she’s long been familiar with Gordy’s patented Motown sound.

“When I was a little girl, my mom and dad always played Motown. And while I was at Berklee, I was the female lead singer in a wedding band called Encore. At almost every performance, people would request Motown songs.

“It wasn’t until I landed this show, however, that I realized how much this music is a part of the soundtrack of America,” Holmes said.

Holmes, a Rome, N.Y., native, came to Boston for college and now calls Dorchester home. She made her professional debut as Dorothy in a 2015 Fiddlehead Theatre Company production of “The Wiz.”

Holmes had only been out of school for a couple of months when she landed her first tour.

“I’m in awe of being able to play someone who is still alive and very much active. I looked back at a lot of footage of Supremes-era Mary to prepare for this show.

“Mary was in the Supremes before the group even took that name, when they were known as the Primettes, and she was there at the very end, too. We’re alike in many ways. We’re both very determined. We love music. And we love what we do,” Holmes said of her primary character.

And sometimes they have other things in common as well.

“At one of our tour stops, during a quick change, a wig master was helping me out of one of Mary’s wigs. He said, ‘So you’re playing Mary Wilson.’ I replied, ‘Yes, I am,’ and he said, ‘That’s so funny, because I change Mary’s wigs in real life, too,’” recalled Holmes.

“Right now, it’s ‘Stop! In the Name of Love.’ It changes week to week, though. And ‘Where Did Our Love Go?’ is one I also really like.”

When it comes to the reportedly often at-odds Ross and Wilson, however, Holmes prefers not to choose one over the other.

“I play Mary so I am definitely Team Wilson. I understudy Diana, however, and I sometimes go on in that role so I also have to be Team Ross,” she said, laughing. “That’s fine, too, because I love them both.”